
Looking back, the rest of that first meal at Apsleys was, well, okay, but not so memorable, or rather, at least a hundred miles in the shadow of the carbonara. However, the carbonara was so good that we decided to revisit Apsleys just to eat this dish again but here’s the twist, the restaurant this time around has shifted up a gear and delivered a superlative meal that delighted us on each of the many courses seeing us totally revise our opinion of Apsleys.
First, let’s take a step back and trace what's going on here. Each of the grand London hotels has a top chef authenticated restaurant such as Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, Gordon Ramsay at Claridges and Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester to name but a few. The Lanesborough in 2009 partnered with Heinz Beck bringing Apsleys to life though you could be forgiven for asking ‘Heinz who?’.
Beck is, perhaps curiously, a German national who runs a three Michelin starred restaurant in Rome, La Pergola at the Cavalieri Hotel cooking Italian food for the Italians; no mean feat then. This is his first venture outside of Italy and I too must put my hand up and say that even if he were sitting at the next table to me, I would in fact fail to recognise him. Nevertheless, this might soon change if the restaurant gets the recognition that we think it now deserves following our recent meal.
Finally we had an impressive plate of petit fours.